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Print Media
Newspapers played an important role in campaigns by promoting a party's ticket
and instilling party values over the long run. Editors could be rewarded with
patronage and printing contracts for assisting the party cause. The number of
newspapers grew exponentially over the 19th century; from 2,300 published in
1850 to 12,000 published in 1890. Most were highly partisan and contained large
amounts of political news, especially during the campaign season. In the last
quarter of the century, a few newspapers manifested a tendency toward editorial
independence, but party affiliation remained the norm.
Among printed materials, the political cartoon had particular impact on the
public. Political prints in America date back to colonial days, but cartoons did
not become widespread until the Civil War era. Harper's Weekly published the
inventive and influential work of Thomas Nast, along with a cadre of other
talented cartoonists, such as Frank Bellew and A. B. Frost. Frank Leslie's
carried the cartoons of Matt Morgan, while Joseph Keppler contributed his
caricatures to Puck and Judge. By the 1884 campaign, cartoons flourished not
only in weeklies and monthlies, but also in the daily newspapers.
Other printed campaign material included pamphlets, handbills, and candidate
biographies. The parties also began producing a campaign manual which included
the party platform, the presidential and vice-presidential nominees' letters of
acceptance, biographical sketches of the candidates, relevant Congressional
reports, major speeches by party leaders, the music and lyrics of campaign
songs, political poems, and political jokes. The collection, coordination, and
distribution of campaign literature was an important task of the party
committees.
Source consulted: Robert J. Dinkin,
Campaigning in America: A History of Election Practices.
Polling
Polling in the modern sense-of scientific voter samples representing the larger
electorate-did not begin until the mid-20th century. A different kind of
polling, arguably as accurate, took place in the 19th century. In districts and
sometimes in entire states where a party was unsure of the election outcome,
partisan pollsters would go door to door to survey every voter. Such polling
practices were organizationally challenging and time consuming, but worth the
effort in revealing where and how to distribute party resources.
Source consulted: Robert J. Dinkin,
Campaigning in America: A History of Election Practices.
Women's role
Women could not vote in presidential elections until 1920, following
ratification of the 19th Amendment. Yet their participation and influence was
important in national campaigns beginning in 1840 when Whig managers encouraged
women to play an active role in the campaign of William Henry Harrison. For the
rest of the 19th century, women organized partisan picnics and teas, spearheaded
letter-writing efforts, and attended rallies, speeches, and torchlight parades.
The political parties enticed and rewarded female support with campaign
memorabilia, such as ceramic ware, hairbrushes, bracelet charms, pendants,
necklaces, and pin cushions. Political scholar Edith Mayo has even argued that
the political parties targeted women more before they got the right to vote than
afterward.
The public appearance and marketing of the wives of presidential candidates
gradually became more accepted. In 1856 the image of Jessie Benton Frémont, the
vivacious wife of Republican nominee John C. Frémont, was reproduced on a
campaign medallion. In 1860 Adele Douglas traveled with her husband, Northern
Democratic nominee Stephen Douglas, on his campaign tour and sat on the platform
while he delivered speeches. Portraits of Lucy Hayes, wife of 1876 Republican
nominee Rutherford B. Hayes, and Caroline Harrison, wife of 1888 Republican
nominee Benjamin Harrison, appeared on campaign posters. Frances Folsom
Cleveland, the young wife of President Grover Cleveland, was very popular during
his 1888 reelection campaign. Her likeness appeared on numerous campaign items,
including posters, handkerchiefs, plates, napkins, ribbons, and playing cards.
A few women became stump speakers during political campaigns. Anna Elizabeth
Dickinson, a well-known reformer and public orator, campaigned for the
Republicans during the 1860s. In 1872 Susan B. Anthony, a leading advocate of
women's suffrage, attended all three political conventions -- Liberal
Republican, Democratic, and Republican. After the Republicans included a
platform plank (which Anthony described as a "splinter") calling for women's
rights to "be treated with respectful consideration," she took to the campaign
trail for President Ulysses Grant. It was the first time a major political party
had included a platform plank specifically addressed to women. That November
Anthony attempted to vote (arguing that the 14th Amendment sanctioned it), but
she was arrested, released on bail, and fined $100. Also in 1872, Victoria
Woodhull became the first woman to run and to be nominated for the presidency.
Woodhull was a controversial promoter of women's rights, "free love," and
spiritualism. She was nominated by the Equal Rights party.
Women had gained the right to vote in the Wyoming
Territory in 1869 and the Utah Territory in 1870 (rescinded in 1887). In 1878,
suffragists convinced Senator Aaron A. Sargent, Republican of California, to
introduce a proposed Constitutional amendment allowing federal voting rights for
women. It was introduced in each subsequent Congress until its passage over 40
years later. When Washington became a state in 1890, it was the only one that
allowed voting rights to women. It was joined by Colorado in 1893, Idaho and
Utah in 1896, Washington State in 1910, California in 1911, and Arizona, Kansas,
and Oregon in 1912.
In August 1912, Theodore Roosevelt’s Progressive
Party became the first major political party to endorse women’s suffrage. The
party also offered women an unprecedented opportunity to serve in a major
partisan organization. Three women—Jane Addams, Frances Kellor, and Isabella
Blaney—were members at large of the Progressive National Committee. They were
the first women to serve on the executive board of a major political party.
Another woman, Alice Carpenter, served on the Platform Committee, and the
party’s official records list 16 delegates and five alternates who were women.
Addams delivered one of the speeches seconding Roosevelt’s nomination for
president. It was the first time that a woman had addressed a major party
convention. During the post-convention campaign, women gave speeches, press
interviews, and published pamphlets for the Progressive Party.
Women gained the right to vote in Illinois and the
Alaska Territory in 1913 and in Montana and Nevada the following year. In 1916,
Jeannette Rankin, a Montana Republican, became the first woman elected to
Congress. The next year seven states granted women’s suffrage, and in 1919
Congress finally passed the 19th Amendment. Upon ratification by a
three-quarters majority of states the following year it became part of the U.S.
Constitution, allowing women to vote in a presidential election for the first
time in 1920.
Sources consulted: Paul F. Boller Jr.,
Presidential Campaigns; Robert J. Dinkin, Campaigning in America: A
History of Election Practices; Roger A. Fischer, Tippecanoe and Trinket
Too: The Material Culture of American Presidential Campaigns, 1828-1984;
Keith Melder, Hail to the Candidate: Presidential Campaigns from Banners to
Broadcasts; Susan Kullmann Puz,
"Victoria C. Woodhull: The First Woman to Run for President," Legal
Contender Website <<http://class.csupomona.edu/ms/skpuz/hst202/Woodhull.Wqart.html>>
(originally appeared in The Women's Quarterly).
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